28 THE PEICKLY PEAK AS FOOD FOE STOCK. 



the run of dry pasture containing an abundance of pear, of which stock 

 eat a great deal during the winter without an}^ preparation whatever. 



(4) A fourth lot was fed similarly to the first, except that only one- 

 half of the amount of meal was used. These cattle were held in a large 

 pasture also. 



The first of these methods is said to have proved by far the most 

 satisfactory. Some idea of the extent to which pear is resorted to in 

 times of drought can be had from Mr. Coleman's operations during 

 the drought of 1901-2. From the latter part of November to the 

 5th of May, four pear cutters and twenty pear burners were in con- 

 stant operation. Besides these, there were employed as many as 50 

 men, who traveled through the pear thickets with machetes, cutting 

 the pear down so that cattle could get into it and feed upon it without 

 further preparation. 



In some respects Mr. Samuel Wolcott's experience has been as varied 

 and definite as any which has come under the writers observation. 

 The methods which he has finally adopted for his work are consider- 

 ably at variance with the practices .of other Americans. Instead of 

 using machinery, he chops all the pear he feeds with machetes, and all 

 pear is scorched on a brush fire just enough to take off the thorns. 

 His method increases the labor of handling considerably in some ways; 

 but having to entrust the work largely to an unintelligent class of 

 labor Mr. Wolcott believes that the additional expense of using 

 machinery with such labor would be greater than the additional cost 

 of using the machete and brush fires. 



It has been his practice, in feeding for beef, to turn the stock into a 

 pasture of considerable size in the morning: there they get a large 

 picking of grass and some browse. While the} T are in the pasture the 

 day's ration is prepared. The troughs are cleaned and filled; the pear 

 is singed, put in the troughs, and chopped, and cotton-seed meal is 

 sprinkled over it at .the rate of from 3 to 6 pounds for each animal. It 

 was the practice during the past winter to feed 3 pounds for thirty 

 days, 4 pounds for thirty days, and 6 pounds for thirty days, making 

 in all ninety days' feeding. It requires about ten days to get the cattle 

 into the habit of eating out of a trough, so that the feeding period 

 really extends over a period of about one hundred days. In reality the 

 feeding period is governed largely by the condition of the feed in the 

 pastures. The cattle are turned out on to grass after ninety days of 

 pear feeding. One pasture is reserved for finishing cattle which have 

 been fed pear and cotton-seed meal during the winter. This pasture 

 is, therefore, alwa} T s in good condition; but the intention is to feed so 

 that the period of ninety days will be up about the time that grass is 

 in good shape in the spring. The cattle are marketed off of grass. 



The feeding of 125 head was done by three Mexicans and a foreman. 

 Were it not for cheap labor the cost of pear feeding in this wa} T would 



